Palestine and the two types of nationalism

Kaak bel-ajweh and bagala: Palestinian date-filled cake and bread. Photo: Rashmee Roshan Lall

In his 2013 paper titled ‘ Palestinian Nationalism: An Overview ‘, Haifa university Professor As’ad Ghanem indicated a sceptical view about the Palestinian national movement’s conduct of its affairs. Not everyone agrees with him, but it’s still worth unpacking what he said in the context of civic and ethnic nationalism, the two kinds defined by literature.

The first is civic or territorial nationalism. Professor Ghanem writes that it “emphasizes the common territory and citizenship as the criteria for individuals’ inclusion in the national group.” This national group “is the totality of citizens, with no emphasis on their primordial ethnic affiliation; the national culture consists chiefly of civic and universal values. This kind of nationalism is found in France, Great Britain, and the United States. Civic nationalism crystallizes under the shadow of attempts to establish hegemony for the domi…